Signage questions?

[JoH]

Good morning,

I hope you are safe and well.

Our Fire maintenance company has been 'taken over' by another company and they have been out to our premises to undertake the fire maintenance/services.

However, the list they have given us to replace items or to buy new things is huge... which is why I'm asking for help.

I have tried to investigate and understand that we may be 'missing' some signs (unsure why our last fire maintenance company didnt point this out to us)...  but the prices the new company have quoted as are so high!?  eg, £19.95 for 1 sign - that I can find on a site for £10.90.

 

anyway... please can anyone help with the below queries?

Fire blanket sign - do they have to be rigid plastic or are vinyl stickers needed?

fire blankets - is there a particular standard as to how they should be attached to the wall?

Fire point sign - rigid plastic or vinyl stickers?  

Fire alarm call point sign - rigid plastic or vinyl stickers needed?

'running man' sign - we have been told that they now have to be directional as in south east/south west/north east and so on

replace 2 powder fire extinguishers with Co2 - our old company only changed these to powder last year? (in a warehouse area)

Does the signage have to be photoluminescent?

Many thanks for your help, its really appreciated.

Kind regards

JoH 

 

 

 

[AnthonyB]

Hi,

Signs

- Can be any material, some places print their own off and laminate using signs creation software from the internet to get the colour and symbol right

- Do not have to be photoluminescent (the mark up is horrendous, the photoluminescent extinguisher signs for example only cost them @ 70p)

- New exit signs do have to include a directional arrow except where only trained and familiar staff are present and usually where the signs are supplementary (e.g. on a stair to indicate to keep going down). It's not retrospective of course, it's up to your fire risk assessment (which you shouldn't have done by the same people whose main business is selling extinguishers and signs) to determine if the risk provided by retaining the legacy signage is intolerable.

Extinguishers
- In many indoor environments it's absolutely correct to replace powder with other types (despite many companies still putting them in) but it's not across the board and the choice is a combination of both fire and health & safety risk assessment plus business continuity/property protection matters. An office, shop, public building, healthcare premises, etc wouldn't really be a good idea for many reasons, but more industrial areas, particularly large open areas with no public, can suit powder, especially if multi risk, where a flammable liquid spill is a risk and where the secondary damage issues are considered less an issue. If you were a warehouse with attached office block for example, I'd phase powder out of the office and kitchen if present, but may leave it in the warehouse as long as you accepted the damage risks (which depending on the materials and processes may not be high anyway)

It's the FRA that drives your needs, not the supplier and maintainer and if you get a good risk assessor you use their report and get the maintenance firm to work to that, not you working to their 'advice'

From what you are saying I've a good guess as to which group has taken over your old supplier and it's not uncommon to find you should move as you get hit by lots of recommendations that are 'law' and your servicing charge rockets as every little part used suddenly gets charged on top of the basic service fee.

What part of the country are you (In case I can help further)?
 

[JoH]

Ohhh wow, thank you so much.

We are in the West Midlands and I really do think we need to find a new Company to help us as I'm not sure, but feel that we are being taken 'for a ride' and right now, we just don't need that.

[AnthonyB]

I'm happy to help more beyond the limits of free forum advice if you need - PM me through the forum if you need to.